This is a gallery of broken paintball equipment items that I have gathered over the years, also including pictures I've found on the internet (or ones people have sent me). I find a lot of these items to be pretty interesting since one end of the spectrum is a design defect, whereas the other end of the spectrum is user carelessness (and anything in between).
Do you have a worthy picture you think should be displayed here? If so then send it to me!

Stripped ASA

Stripped ASA (picture from Jogernot)

Stripped ASA (picture from Tim Firpo)

Stripped regulator bonnet (picture from M. Feldman)

Stripped tank adapters, regulator bonnets, or ASA threads.

Shocker Sport fire piston housing

Fire piston housing from a Shocker Sport. Sheared apart just from regular use....an uncommon but not totally unheard-of occurance. Picture taken by blinkt.

Impulse knife bolt

Here are some Impulse bolts from a junk parts lot. The bolt on the left somehow lost the front of its o-ring groove (it looks as if it was removed on purpose). The bolt now has an extremely sharp edge instead of the regular flat surface like the normal bolt on the right. If a ball were to get caught in there, it would get sliced straight through. Turn your Impulse into a vegematic with one of these.

Broken Evolve v2 Shocker bolt

Broken Freeflow Shocker bolt

Broken New Designz v3 Shocker bolt

Examples of snapped Shocker bolts from various companies. I've seen this happen to every type of Shocker bolt (in isolated cases) except for the OEM stock bolts from SP. Please note I didn't take any of these pictures.

Broken Lucky LBM Ion bolt

Broken Orange Ion bolt

Broken Warrior v1 Ion bolt (picture courtesy pbgunner)

Broken Ion Firebolt

Broken Ion Firebolt (picture from ultraxr)

Broken L7 Ion bolt

Broken modified stock Ion bolt

Broken Hollowpoint guide shaft (picture from danielkenworthy)

Examples of snapped Ion bolts. This damage occurs when air traveling through the bolt tip pushes backward on the bolt's middle section (which happens every time you fire the marker). As with Shocker bolts, there's really no way to prevent this from happenning aside from beefing up the entire ported area with material, but this would increase the bolt mass, which makes everybody mad.
Please note; MANY people have sent me similar pictures of broken Ion bolts over the years. I have more pictures of Ion bolts than any other "busted" component.

Broken Goldmember bolt

Snapped Goldmember bolt from a Quest (picture from handsomrob).

Broken delrin Automag bolt

This delrin Automag bolt seems to have shattered under use. (picture from C. Evans).

Broken Lurker Mini bolt

Broken Lurker Mini bolt

Snapped delrin Lurker bolt for a Mini/Axe marker. I'm surprised we don't see more delrin bolts breaking in this way, because the continued firing cycle definitley puts some stress on unbalanced parts. Naturally Lurker replaced the bolt. (picture from puzz13@pbnation).

Broken Proto PMR Rail bolt (picture from tyronejk)

Broken Proto PMR Rail bolt (picture from tyronejk)

Here's a couple snapped bolts from a Proto Matrix Rail (PMR). This happens for the same reason as Ions.

Broken Shocker RSX bolt (picture from C. Copley)

Snapped bolt from a Shocker RSX marker. Again this happened due to identical conditions as an Ion bolt.

Broken regulator poppet guide

The "poppet guide" component from a Shocker/Nerve vertical Max-Flo. This type of damage occurs when you screw the macroline fitting in too far. This normally puts a bad series of scratches into the side of the part, but in this extreme case it was actually broken in half.

Board goo

Board goo

In 2005 SP was involved with a lawsuit with WDP, the result of which involved SP being forced to cover their circuit board microprocessor with a non-conductive epoxy to prevent them from being reprogrammed (note that this ruling was later overturned so only a few hundred boards have this appearance). In the above pictures, the epoxy had dripped down onto the dwell DN button, and gummed it up. To repair it I had to chisel through the goo, remove the gummy dwell button, and install a new one in its place. It's a hassle, but easily functional again. Back when I was performing mail-in board repairs, I saw similar problems with board goo probably another 3 times.

Damaged Mini-Morlock board

Repaired Mini-Morlock with new connector

Repaired Mini-Morlock with new connector

I bought this Morlock board secondhand off pbnation for $10 (plus $2 shipping). The owner had not only menaged to rip off the microchip, tournament lock, and first solenoid resistor, but also had removed the 12-point connector and in the process destroyed the solder pinholes. I replaced the missing components and installed my own connector onto the board, but had to attach wires from most of the connector to the various parts of the board separately. Repaired, reflashed, and good as new again (in fact this is the board I used in my Adrenalin Impulse for a while).

Glued solenoid

Glued solenoid

This Shocker was sent in for repair. The owner attempted a homebrew repair when the solenoid spacer screws broke off and got stuck inside the solenoid manifold (stainless version). His solution was to superglue the solenoid down to the manifold. This obviously didn't work, and ended up having to replace the manifold, screws, and o-rings with new ones.

Metal shavings in regulator

A dreaded sight upon disassembling a CP regulator. Located right on top of the piston is a nice pile of metal shavings. I don't know if they came from the regulator, ASA, or tank; there's no way to know for sure but this is definitely not a nice thing to see.

Broken Shocker frame

Broken 1999 Shocker frame. All I have is the picture with no details; I don't know how this happened nor where the picture came from.

Broken volumizer

A broken volumizer screw from an Autococker front block. This may have been caused by overtightening, but could also be due to the very weak design (picture from E. Hsia).

Grinded regulator adjustment cap

Another component from a Shocker/Nerve vertical regulator, this time an adjustment endcap. The damage was caused due to the lock screw not being removed before adjusting it. This can cause metal shavings from the endcap to make their wat into the reg internals. The lock screw was later removed from the reg due to having not much use.

Stripped spring platform

The hex used for removal on this spring platform became stripped out. I was unable to remove it due to it being overtightened by the previous owner. Ultimately I ended up cutting the reg body apart so I could at least salvage the regulator's piston and spring from within. The rest is trash.

Blown macroline hose

Blown macroline hose, due to a regulator spike (likely over 1000-psi). Be wary of thin-walled air hose because its strength can be weakened by kinks and bends in the shape.

Broken macroline fitting

This air fitting fell apart when the user attempted to unscrew it (picture from J. Vickers).

Defective tank regulator stem

Defective tank regulator stem

Defective tank regulator stem

This the tank-end of a preset HPA tank regulator. According to the owner, he took the tank off in order to get it re-tested, then found this damage. There's approximately two threads intact, the rest are completely missing. He was the original owner of the tank which means this somehow passed quality control and was assembled by the factory. Pictures courtesy msonic.

The owner of this Mini/Axe drop forward menaged to jam one of the bottomline rail set screwsinside the small bottom slot, and the set screw became stripped out while trying to remove it. There was no way to get it out (or install it correctly) so I instructed him to send the drop forward into me so I could carefully mill away enough of it that the bottomline rail could be excised.

Shattered Ego feedneck. Not sure how it happened, but probably during a fall.

Broken Ego

Smashed Ego. I don't know the specifics of how this happened, but supposedly the person responsible didn't own the marker. This looks like "core sample" damage (below) except the frame is bent in the wrong direction, so I really have no idea.

Smashed Luxe barrel hood

Smashed Luxe. Not sure precisely how this occured; it almost looks intentional.

Damaged Adrenalin Impulse

An Adrenalin Impulse sent in for repair. In this picture, one of the metal "legs" that surrounds the bolt has bent inward and prevents the bolt from being removed through the back. I've heard of this happening before but only have seen it once (in the pic).

Lost fingernail

This was once the middle fingernail from my right hand. It fell off after getting smashed in the breech of an AirStar Nova one day. All the black stuff is dried blood trapped underneath (which explains why it came off). It took many months to grow back!

Bent Mini trigger guard

The front of the trigger guard on this Invert Mini had been bent rearward, preventing the foregrip from linking with the body (the two should be parallel). The user stated he didn't know how this happened. Picture from smalltalknoob.

Bamboo barrel

Bamboo barrel

Bamboo barrel on a Shocker Sport that was sent in for repair. This isn't a busted part per-se, but it was so odd that I wanted to include it here. The barrel is simply a tube of plastic-coated bamboo which was press fitted into the marker's barrel threads (measuring 0.700" internal diameter). The owner of the marker said it was shipped to him from the previous owner, and he couldn't get it out.

Brazed pressure releease valve

The same marker as the one with the bamboo barrel also had this special brass pressure release valve installed. The release valve had been soldered/brazed shut, presumably because it was bleeding air; the regulator was missing some internals...so at this point it wasn't even regulating at all. I repaired the reg and swapped out the release valve for a nice used one.

Stripped Shocker vertical adapter hole

Stripped vertical adapter screw threads in this Shocker SFT body. I've seen this a few times myself but never took pictures of it. Picture courtesy airsin2000.

A twisted endcap from a Dye DM fuse bolt system. Reportably, it was inserted into a DM5 however was made to fit a newer year-model body. Pictures from R Pote.

Twisted Demon fire chamber

Another twisted firing assembly, this time a bolt from a Vanguard Demon marker. Picture from R Pote.

Bent Mini trigger guard (before attempted repair)

Bent Mini trigger guard (snapped after repair)

There's a long story behind this. The owner of the marker was trying to remove a Nummech foregrip extender from the marker's foregrip but it wouldn't budge (probably due to the set screws seizing up and marring the surrounding dovetail material). He took a hammer to the marker in order to try forcing the extender off, but before long had bent the entire trigger guard to the point where it no longer functioned correctly with the body board. The foregrip extender was still stuck on, so the owner contacted Nummech for advise and was directed to me (for disclosure, I own the company Nummech and designed this product). We decided the best course of action was for me to remove the hammered foregrip extender and try repairing the foregrip. I machined off the extender then took the first picture.
I have some experience with sheet metal fabrication so I was able to pound the frame back into its correct position, however the tigger guard had sustained too much stress and couldn't move all the way vertical. I was able to straighten it out but not before the trigger guard snapped in half.
I offered to weld the trigger guard back together, then have the whole frame re-anodized, but it would have been an odd repair to make. Ultimately the owner ended up buying one of Nummech's VL frames as replacement.

Bent Nerve

Bent Nerve

This Nerve body was bent at the back end of the bolt tube, interfering with the bolt's carriage assembly.

Bent Nerve

This Dynasty Shocker has a nice welded feedneck repair. It appears the rest of the marker body was also media-blasted, probably to prepare for the welding job.

Burnt Geo (Sam Haynes)

Burnt Geo. This was the result of a proshop that caught fire. The picture is credited to Sam Haynes from facebook.

Snapped Myth regulator spring (Tim Firpo)

Here's a regulator issue that many airsmiths have seen before (but seemingly I've collected only one picture of it). The spring chamber in all regulators is open to outside air to allow venting, which can lead to contamination of moisture and foreign substances. Combined with some unlucky materials, the spring can shatter under load. Fortunately most HPA tank regulators are of the moving base type, which will cause a decrease in output pressure if the spring breaks. This picture came from Tim Firpo of Paintballtek.com.

Broken Nova body (Jake Berenyi)

Broken Nova body (Jake Berenyi)

AirStar Nova markers use a special moving barrel which is retained by a trio of pins within the front of the marker body. One such body is shown here, although it was somehow damaged beyond repair by the previous owner. The body components appear to have been welded back into position, but this isn't good enough to hold the 200 pounds being pushed by air pressure within the marker. These pictures were taken by Jake Berenyi from the facebook AirStar Nova group.

Battery acid leak

Just a little bit of battery acid leeched out into this marker's grip frame. Reportably the marker was repaired under warranty.

Bent frame CS1 (picture from Jordan Lemm)

Bent frame CS1 (picture from Jordan Lemm)

Bent foregrip mount on an Eclipse CS1.

Stripped Shocker vertical adapter (picture from Scott Shredlife)

Falling damage to this 06 Dynasty Shocker SFT. The vertical adapter hole was stripped out, and the regulator caused some damage to the trigger guard. Picture from Scott Shredlife.

This is an example of a defective Shocker RSX fire chamber. The blue fire chambers were recalled due to being weak around the front (as shown in the picture after the fire chamber pulled itself apart). The replacement fire chamber is redesigned to avoid breaking and also vent rather than eject from the marker body. This picture and the owner's account gretly contributed to the component being recalled by SP.

Bent ram head

This picture shows a very bent ram piston head from an Eclipse Ego. This can be easily caused by improperly installing the bolt pin then attempting to fire the marker, allowing the ram to collide with the bolt pin in front of it. Picture from PaintballTek.

Falling Damage / Twisted Frames / Core Samples:This usually occurs after the "core sample" maneuver (see the first picture below for the perfect example). Core Sample is the joke name that describes falling forward against the back of your marker's tank, driving the barrel into the ground like a stake. If the physics are correct, the player puts his/her full momentum directly onto the tank, which exerts a LOT of force onto the marker, sometimes causing it to destroy itself at its weakest location (usually the grip frame).

Twisted Ego

Snapped Ego frame

Twisted XSV Ego

Twisted XSV Ego

Twisted Ego (picture from Toll)

Twisted Ego (picture from Toll)

Twisted Eclipse marker

Twisted Eclipse marker

Twisted Eclipse marker

Twisted Eclipse marker (photo by Boss Paintball Products)

Twisted Ego

Twisted Ego

Twisted Etek LT

Here's a pile of assortement busted Eclipse markers during and after core samples.

Twisted Strange Shocker

Twisted Strange Shocker

Twisted Strange Shocker. As the story goes, the frame's circuit board was snapped but otherwise the marker was in working condition. It looks like the feedneck broke off in the process though, so there may have been other damage not immeditely visible in these pictures.

Twisted DM

Twisted DM

Several random Dye Ultralite frames after core sample damage.

Shattered Luxe

Shattered Luxe

Shattered Luxes.

Bent Freak barrel

This bent freak barrel is pictured on a Nerve. The player stated that he was later able to bend the barrel back to straightness and continue using it.

Damaged Ultralite barrel

Damaged Ultralite barrel

Damaged Ultralite barrel

Ultralite barrel repaired

This Ultralite barrel damaged when a core sample took place. The damaged part was removed and the barrel shortened a bit, to maintain functionality (pictures courtesy x420psykoticx).

Snapped Vanquish Freak barrel

Core sample with an Empire Vanquish, destroying the Freak barrel back. Reportably:
Good news. BOOM player, Chris Jansen is resting at the hospital after the bad dive he took resulted in some internal bleeding. He says doctors should be clearing him soon, hopefully within the next 24-48 hours. Get well soon bud! ..And for you folks wondering..Yes, that is his barrel, snapped in two as a result of the dive he took. Ouch! =0(originally posted on PBNation)

Twisted OLED display (photo from BHMucci@pbnation)

Twisted and broken OLED display screen (due to falling on the tank)

Twisted OLED display (photo from g$hocker@pbnation)

Twisted OLED display (photo from g$hocker@pbnation)

Twisted OLED display (photo from g$hocker@pbnation)

Twisted OLED display (photo from g$hocker@pbnation)

Massive damaged on this Luxe. As the story goes, the person that took these pictures had recently bought the marker secondhand, only to find it was cracked. After using it, the frame fell apart. Pictures are from g$hocker.

Broken Parker solenoid coils (the solder terminals separated from the copper coil inside the housing). This is approximately the number of solenoids I've replaced due to this problem at the time the pic was taken, and is the sole reason why I don't use them in my personal guns when available. The coil in the top-left was literary ripped apart using a butterknife and my fingernails, which tells you how easy these are to destroy.

Leaky solenoid spools

Leaky solenoid spools that were pulled from guns. I have a couple more that fit other valve makes (MAC; Humphrey) but I use them for spares in my own stuff.
After a few years, I actually sold these damaged spools one by one as a cource for replacement spool gaskets. However, the obvious problem is that you can't really tell which of the gaskets led these to be removed in the first place, so you don't know which good gaskets remain. Regardless, I ran out of these in about a month.

Junkbox 2009

Other assorted junk. Popular items include Ion solenoids with broken barbs, damaged pressure gauges, and scratched valve housings. I tend to toss stripped screws into this box as well, but most of the time I just throw them across the room in anger so they don't make it to the pile here.